


nothing lasts forever//but this is gonna take me down

by postfixrevolution



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, and yes the title is a song lyric coME AT ME, not a songfic, published pre-game release so my apologies if OOC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 16:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4926193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postfixrevolution/pseuds/postfixrevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Promise me something, Leo?" Kamui asks timorously.</p><p>"Anything," he tells her, unfaltering and honest. </p><p> </p><p><i>[ alternatively: that time of night when dying candles are the only light and </i>i love you<i>'s start to sound like hidden goodbyes ]</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	nothing lasts forever//but this is gonna take me down

**Author's Note:**

> If you've read anything by me before, you probably already know that I am fueled by headcanons and the non-plot-spoiling parts of the wiki pages, haha... So yeah. We should be _relatively_ spoiler free here.
> 
> And of course, I don't own Fire Emblem. Unbeta-ed, so forgive any lurking mistakes, and enjoy~!
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> _Say you'll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe._  
>  _Red lips and rosy cheeks; say you'll see me again, even if it's just in your_  
>  _Wildest dreams_
> 
> \- Taylor Swift, [Wildest Dreams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ&app=desktop)

Thunder, and a deliberate series of knocks on his wooden door. The sounds blend seamlessly into each other and Leo jerks awake, bolting up and breathing heavily. Behind his eyes, the hazy images of scarlet stained battlefields and flashing steel still swirl; the stench of war hangs heavily over Nohr and their Hoshidan opponents, and it's never a rare occurrence for visions of battle to plague the blond in the middle of the night. The candle he lit before falling asleep is still aflame, albeit burning low to its base. 

On nights like these, he usually sleeps through the nightmares, letting the residual adrenaline and restlessness be his catalysts for the next day's unavoidable conflict. Sometimes, though, the prince wakes up covered in sweat, unable to differentiate between the hammering of his heart and the phantom sounds of footsteps and bodies alike hitting the earth. Leo forces breath after slow breath past his throat, licking his chapped lips and running a tired hand through his hair. With a sigh, he kicks the too-warm sheets off his legs and leans back against his headboard. His breathing slows. It isn't a sense of peace that washes over him, but it is an anxious sort of calm nonetheless. 

The knocking returns, lighter this time. Thunder doesn't boom behind it, drowning out the careful raps, and Leo feels his heart momentarily skip a beat at the sound. But a voice follows soon after, hesitant and soft. His racing pulse calms. 

"Leo?" Kamui calls through the door. "Are you awake?" 

Leo throws his feet off the side of his bed, hopping to the floor with the muffled taps of his bare feet on the cold stone. When he swings open the door, a flash of lightning illuminates Kamui's face, heavy shadows making her look haunting and emaciated, blinding light making her winter-white hair glint silver. As soon as her intensely crimson eyes land on him, she exhales shakily, wasting no time in throwing her arms around his neck. 

While he is by no means unaccustomed to her sporadic attacks, Leo still stumbles slightly backward from the force of her leap. He is quick to right himself, though, wrapping arms around her back and pressing his cheek against her hair. Kamui breathes deeply, taking in his scent and his presence, and he rubs consoling circles into the cotton fabric of her nightgown. 

"Is it the nightmares or the thunder?" he asks her quietly. She shifts in his arms, turning her head so her cheek presses against his shoulder, breath ghosting his neck as she speaks. He closes his eyes and concentrates on the rise and fall of her words and the warm air fanning calmingly across his skin in tingles and waves. 

"Neither," she replies idly. "I simply couldn't sleep." 

He hums in acknowledgement, fingers playing absently with the long strands of her hair that end just above the small of her back. The ends are dry and split, but the rest of her hair is still smooth, skimming like cool silk across his fingertips. 

"You should try harder. We have another battle tomorrow. An important one." 

A noncommittal grunt, and Kamui wriggles around a bit before settling her lithe fingers at the nape of his neck, tugging at the wispy strands of hair there. Leo silently revels at the soothing ministrations. 

"You say that about every battle," she mutters. "Plus, I don't think I could actually sleep if I tried. Not alone, at least." 

A minute smile twitches up at his lips. 

"Subtle," he notes, and her tired giggle vibrates pleasantly through her lips and against his shoulder. She pulls back to look at him past bright, half-lidded eyes. 

"Well?" 

Leo untangles his limbs from hers, pulling away except for gentle hands around her wrists. He takes a step backward into his room before tugging her forward before him, past the doorframe and into his chest. She chuckles breathily at the gesture, the wan shadows of low candlelight painting her smile in ebonies and oranges. His embrace is met with an easy acceptance as Kamui winds her arms around his waist, nuzzling her face up against his chest and nudging the door shut behind them with a tap of her foot. 

"Do you plan on sleeping standing up then?" he quips, to which Kamui snorts. "I would stand here all night if you so wished it." 

Her laugh is quiet. "I know you would. I wouldn't make you do that," she reassures him, releasing him so she can drag them toward his bed and bury herself under the plush sheets. Once they are situated, she curls her arms around him again, pressing a tender kiss on the fabric over his heart. His pulse stutters. 

"I miss this," Kamui whispers smally, sighing contentedly into his chest. "I hate forgetting how warm you are." In the low candlelight, he plies his arms out from under her grip, shifting her body upwards so their faces are level. She stares at him unblinkingly and in the low candlelight, her crimson eyes look like fire; he feels breathless. 

"There's nothing stopping you," Leo replies in her same, whispery tone. They're so close that his own warm breath bounces off her cheeks and back toward him. "I wouldn't stop you from knocking or coming in." He tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Or from simply seeking me out," he adds softly, "no matter when, where, or why." 

She hums absently, cupping his face and gently tracing a thumb over his lips. He leans into the touch, letting his eyelids flutter shut. 

"So you say," she responds distantly. He doesn't get to see what kind of expression paints her face before she pulls his head into the crook of her neck, holding him tightly. Kamui's breaths are slow and steady, deep and measured, and Leo is lulled into a lethargic calm by her constant presence, winding his arms around her slender waist. Only niggling thoughts buzz quietly in his head, urging him to ask her to explain her vague answers and look him in the eye. His room is suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning, bright enough to see through closed eyes, and a substantial pause later beckons the faraway rumble of thunder. The storm passes further away. She sighs heavily, and the warm air rushes through his bangs. His eyes open at the sad sound, and when Kamui pulls him closer, he mutters against the curve of her neck. 

"You don't believe me," he tells her, more statement than question. She shivers slightly at the sensation of lips against the sensitive skin over her collarbone. 

"We're at war, Leo," she says simply, defeatedly. Her lips ghost over his forehead as she speaks. "How can we believe anyone will still be there to _be_ sought out come the next day?" 

Leo frowns, wriggling himself out of her grip. She almost doesn't let him go, arms wound desperately around him, only releasing him when he addresses her, firmly and fragilely; her name rolls off his tongue like an order and a plea, and he feels it echo in his mind like a prayer — some selfish hope that they can stay here and together forever. The low candle will stay at its meager inch above the base and the rain will stay a quiet hum in the background as he focusses on the synchronized sound of her heartbeat and his. However, at the utterance of her name, her arms fall away immediately. Her crimson eyes are dipped in dying shadows when he lifts himself up to meet them. 

"We can't be," he whispers. "But all the more reason to do it now." His fingers find her chin and he gently tilts her chin up, smoothly pressing his lips to hers like it is second nature. It could be, judging by how seamlessly her mouth melds to his, how easily her fingers curl into his hair and how naturally his heart starts racing like it does every time he kisses her. Leo never feels more alive than when he is with Kamui — running on the crackling electricity that hums between their every point of contact and unable to separate the hammering of his heart from hers. She kisses him sweetly and swiftly, pulling away and pressing her palms against his chest before he can follow her back. His skin is cold in the absence of hers against it. His eyelids flutter open, and the look that sad crimson ones level at him make his heart stop and his stomach twist. Shadow and candlelight fight for dominance over the mountains and valleys of her face, and Kamui is the very definition of beautiful. 

" _I love you_ ," she breathes, staring at her fingers splayed over his chest, then at him. The pads of her left fingers press against the drumming of his heart. 

He swallows back the bubbling euphoria in his chest, the leap of his heart at her words. 

"I know," he responds breathlessly. Leo wraps his fingers around hers and pulls them toward his face, bringing the smooth pads up to his lips. Pressing a tender kiss against each fingertip, he mutters to her, "I know." His hands find the back of her neck, tugging her into his chest. Her hair is silky against his cheek, and she smells like magic in a way that makes him blissfully dizzy. "And I feel the same in every way for you, Kamui. My heart was never mine to claim because it was made for you alone." 

A soft gasp, and her arms suddenly pull him closer to her, burying her head deeper into her chest. Her eyes are rimmed with tears when she pulls back to gaze at him, shining like diamonds in the dying candlelight. She smiles at him tremblingly, but nothing about her is less than _immaculate_ ; Leo has never felt more enraptured with this girl than he does now, with love on their lips and arms wound so tightly around each other that there is no end to one or beginning of the other. 

Kamui kisses him this time, passionately and suddenly, teeth against his lips and fingers in his hair. He wastes no time in responding, running his tongue along the seam of her lips, and Kamui sighs into his mouth, pressing her body closer to his almost desperately. He can feel the tears on her cheeks, sticky and warm, and brings a hand up to her face, thumbing the wetness away. Leo loses himself in her fingernails ghosting over the nape of his neck, his fingers hot against the exposed skin of her thigh, and forgets that he needs air until his head starts spinning and she pulls herself away, panting heavily. He has to blink hard to calm the reeling sensation behind his eyes, forcing them to focus on Kamui. 

"I love you, Leo," she whispers again, breathy and shaky and trembling with unshed tears. "I love you so, _so_ much." There is an ineffable fragility in her voice, so wispy and sad and poignantly soft, and Leo can't help the way his heart _aches_ for the girl in front of him. He draws in a deep, slow breath. 

"Don't make it sound like such a goodbye," he breathes, tucking errant strands of winter white hair away gently. She catches his hand behind her ear, threading her fingers into his. 

"Promise me something, Leo?" Kamui asks timorously. She meets his eyes head on, crimson boring into amethyst amidst the weak candlelight. The light flickers uncertainly, like it could die out at any moment, and Leo feels the tugging urge to commit her every feature to memory — the striking flecks of ebony in her crimson irises, the elegant curve of her cheeks and the stubborn strands of too-short hair that always fall away from her ear and into her eyes; he memorizes it all, and tucks it safely away into the deepest corners of his mind. 

"Anything," he tells her, unfaltering and honest. 

"Don't ever forget me," she whispers. "If I ever go before you, say you'll remember me, in dreams or in memories. Say that there won't ever be a last time you see me." 

Leo tightens his fingers around hers. 

"I won't let you go before me," he insists. "I will take swords, arrows, tomes, _anything_ before I let you go before me in this world." 

A sad smile and Kamui untangles her fingers from his, drawing herself into his chest. He doesn't stop her, but laments the loss of her intense gaze on his nonetheless. 

"Promise it to me anyway," she mumbles. He watches the golden glow on her hair flicker out with the candlelight. Darkness, and her steady breathing. 

"I promise." 

* * *

....

...

..

.

They meet again on the battlefield the next day, the upcoming conflict just as important as Leo had foretold. She mouths something to him as they set off, words that are lost in the cacophonous din of war around them. He ends up keeping his promise that day. 

Leo never forgets the emotionless look on Kamui's face as she turns away from him and toward the Hoshidan flag. 

**Author's Note:**

> Welp. I don't know about you, but _I've_ made myself sad now, haha. Thoughts, feedback, comments?


End file.
